Page:Highways and Byways in Lincolnshire.djvu/170

 CHAPTER XIII

ROADS SOUTH FROM LINCOLN

The Foss Way—The Sleaford Road and Dunston Pillar on "The Heath"—The Ermine Street and the Grantham Road on "The Ridge"—Canwick—Blankney—Digby—Rowston—Brant-Broughton—Temple Bruer and the Knights Templars and Hospitallers—Somerton Castle and King John of France—Navenby—Coleby—Bracebridge.

Besides these three roads going east from Lincoln, there are three great roads which run along "the ridged wold" northwards, and two going south; but these two, as soon as they are clear of Lincoln, branch into a dozen, which, augmented by five lines of railway, all radiating from one centre and all linked by innumerable small roads which cross them, form, on the map, an exact pattern of a gigantic spider's web. Of this dozen the three trunk roads southwards are the Foss Way to Newark in the flat country, and the Sleaford road over "the heath," both of which roads avoid all villages (though the Sleaford road passes through Leasingham, described in Chap. VIII., about two miles north of Sleaford, and has that curious erection, the Dunston pillar, at the roadside about eight miles out from Lincoln, described in the chapter on Nocton); and thirdly, the Grantham road, on the ridge between the two, which has a village at every mile. Others run, one to Skellingthorpe, one to Doddington with its interesting old Hall, which we will revert to shortly; one all down the Witham valley to Beckingham on the border, going by Basingham with its ninth-century Saxon font, and Norton Disney with its fine Disney tombs and remarkable brass, also to be described later; and one to Brant Broughton.

A sign-post in Lincoln points to this village, because, though